Don't tell that to Cato's coach at Marshall, Doc Holliday, nor the rest of the Conference USA coaches that witness Cato's supreme talents first-hand on a weekly basis.

For that matter, Cato's current build is nothing compared to what current Louisiana Tech offensive coordinator Tony Petersen, who served in the same capacity at Marshall from 2010 to 2012, saw when Cato weighed a robust 163 pounds as a freshman.

Since then, Cato has lit C-USA on fire in three years as a starter with 91 touchdown passes and enough plays to fill multiple highlight reels.

"Cato and I had a great time together," Petersen said earlier this week. "He came a long way. He started as a true freshman. Him and I had our ups and downs and that's just part of it. Cato's a big-time competitor. He's matured a lot."

Coming off a junior campaign that saw Cato lead Marshall's high-powered offense to the C-USA title game with 39 touchdowns — good for third in the country behind only Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston and Derek Carr — Cato is now poised for Heisman run of his own in his final go-around with the Thundering Herd.

"The Heisman (attention) is great," Cato recently said at C-USA Media Day in July. "It's a great award to win, but if I'm involved in it and my teammates and coaching staff and the whole Marshall community is involved, I'd be happy that I'm getting the spotlight."

There's no guarantee Cato is even in the conversation late in the year, but if he puts up the same numbers as the previous two years, it wouldn't be shocking.

Plus, Marshall and the Heisman trophy have a relationship dating back to the late 1990s when wide receiver Randy Moss was a finalist in 1998 and quarterback Chad Pennington also made it to New York in 1999. A few years later in 2002, Byron Leftwich was in the conversation for much of the season, although he wasn't among the finalists.

Cato is almost a lock for 40-plus touchdowns based off Marshall's schedule this year. But Petersen actually sees that as the one thing that might hurt Cato in the long run.

"The only thing I think will hold him back just looking at Marshall right now is their schedule this year," Petersen said. "Their non-conference schedule — three MAC (schools) and a (FCS). If there's anything that I think would leave him out of that, I don't think it's his play, I just think it's the competition he's playing against in the non-conference schedule. If they had a couple big games like we're about to play and he still went out and had that season and had some of those games against those guys, then yeah."

Petersen is referring to how Louisiana Tech is playing Oklahoma and Auburn this season, two teams in the top 5 of the preseason poll.

Marshall, on the other hand, has a cakewalk schedule with its four non-conference games coming against Miami (Ohio), Rhode Island, Ohio and Akron.

The Thundering Herd have a strong chance of running the table and getting to one of the six major bowl games in the new College Football Playoff, but Cato lacks a marquee game to announce himself to the nation.

The C-USA East division is once again weak this season, at least on paper, and Marshall avoided Texas-San Antonio and North Texas as its opponents from the West, along with Louisiana Tech, which is probably a good thing for the Bulldogs.

"Yes, part of it says we don't play him in the regular season, but if we do what we want to do and be where we need to be, we're going to have to play him at some point in time, whether that be in the championship or not," Tech coach Skip Holtz said.

No matter how Cato's season shakes out, C-USA coaches bought the hype in July.

"I've watched his career and seen the things he can do," North Texas coach Dan McCarney said. "He is a dynamic football player. He's a special guy. I gotta feeling if he stays healthy, he'll be in the hunt for every award that is out there. He's a really, really good player."

Rice coach David Bailiff acknowledged Cato's throwing ability, but was quick to point out his knack to force opposing defenses into sticky situations with his legs.

Cato does most of his damage improvising outside of the pocket and ran for 294 yards and six touchdowns in 2013.

"When he decides to pull it down and run the ball, he makes it look like they're playing with 12 (players)," Bailiff said. "He's that good and he could post those kind of numbers where he's probably going to have to be in some of the Heisman discussions."

The one constant with the coaches, including Cato's own, is the comparison's they make against some of the other quarterback greats they've dealt with.

Although McCarney is a defensive coach by trade, he was at Florida when Tim Tebow won a Heisman.

Holliday, who became Marshall's head coach in 2010, has worked with quarterbacks like Jeff Hostetler, Phillip Rivers, Chris Leak and Tebow, yet calls Cato the most competitive kid he's ever coached.

"Anywhere where I've ever been where you've won championships, it starts at that position," Holliday said. "We've got one there."

Marshall gets a chance to avenge its championship loss to Rice with a rematch on Nov. 15. Depending on how Rice plays up to that point, it might be Cato's best chance to impress the contingent of Heisman voters.

In the meantime, he doesn't plan to worry. Instead, he'll spend his time watching film of every negative play from 2013.

"The main thing I'm focused on is turnovers," said Cato, who was picked off nine times in 2013. "I'm trying to go into the season with no turnovers at all — no fumbles, no interceptions. That's my main goal."

If that goal is achieved, it certainly can't hurt his Heisman chances.